Sirplus closes all branches

The start-up, which fights against food waste, is giving up its brick-and-mortar business due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, online sales are to continue.

The food rescue start-up Sirplus is having to close its bricks-and-mortar stores. This affects the company's five stores in Berlin. The reason is massive sales losses, as founder Raphael Fellmer told the RBB confirmed. All of the approximately 50 employees and trainees will lose their jobs at Sirplus, but Fellmer says he is trying to find them jobs at other companies.

Sirplus is in an ambivalent situation, as Fellmer explained: the online business with the food that the start-up saves from going to waste is going extremely well, partly due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, this and the associated lockdowns had led to unacceptable sales losses in the stores.

"It makes me sad that we can no longer represent the issue of food waste on the streets of Berlin with the closure of the rescue stores," the founder told RBB. Fellmer founded Sirplus in 2017. The company buys food that is discarded by producers and wholesalers for various reasons and passes it on to its own customers at a low price. The aim is to reduce waste. Fellmer had already presented the concept on "Die Höhle der Löwen" in the past, but did not close a deal there.